Hi everyone first poster here, bear with my I really am a novice. I live in a sort of tropical country so it's apparently great for outdoor grows. How would I go from germinating the seed to getting it planted outside in the ground. One of my major concerns is making the plant go into flowering because the light cycle here is about 14/12 so does anyone have any tips on going from a 18/6 to 14/12 without flowering happening. Or in fact does anyone have any better alternatives to getting the plant all ready and planted outside? That's all I pretty much need is a route to getting the plant into the ground without early flowering. Thanks in advance.
Hi James: I'm a first-timer too. If you're germinating seeds and are starting the plants inside, you can adjust the initial light cycle to match what they will get outside. Once they are outside, the days will gradually get longer until the end of summer and then the plants will get more darkness which is their signal to flower. I've only done two grows and both were outside. Last year someone gave me two clones (OG Kush and Cottage Cheese), a sative and indica. I kept them inside but used only natural light, so they had the darkness that nature provided. I moved them outside with no problem in mid-May. This year, I bought seven clones from dispensaries. I probably read too much stuff and I kept them outside in the sun during the day and under artificial light at night. So, they were getting 18-24 hrs light. I was worried about the transition forcing the plant to flower, but after a few weeks of carrying 5 gallon containers of soil/plant inside every night, I decided to risk it. I planted them direcly in the ground and they've been there about a week. My theory is, as the days continue to lengthen, the plants won't flower because they are getting about 14 hours of light. I also think the plants are less likely to flower when they are very young. Mine are under 8" tall. If I happen to see a bud coming up, i'll pick it off and after a bit of that, the plant should stay in vegetative form. That's my hope.
In a tropical climate with about 12 daylight hours year round plants will pretty much start flowering no matter what time of year you put them out. The best things I suggest to do are grow sativa or mostly sativa genetics as they will give a few extra weeks growth and stretch out before flowering. Veg your plants or clones indoors until you are ready to flower. Once you veg the plants to a decent size say 2 ft, put them outside.
Yeah I would just start your plants indoors if you get that much light, this way you can get some size on the plants and still get some time to veg outdoors. Another good thing I would recommend to you in the situation are autoflowering strains. They have no reaction to light cycles they simply bud after a certain amount of time. You cant clone them is the only downfall to them. I always start my early indoors because by the time they get outside they are usually around 1-3 foot tall and bushy and trained down so that when you throw it outdoors it will explode and give yo that much extra growth